Setzer Yacht Architects

From Hargrave's drawing board to New Bern

Setzer started in 1984 in Jack Hargrave's Palm Beach studio, where Trade Only Today records him working on the 130 foot Buckpasser and the 148 foot Calliope. Hargrave was one of the defining American motor yacht designers and Setzer has said the older man was a perfectionist who taught him to ask why and why not about every line. From 1985 he was at Hatteras Yachts in New Bern, North Carolina, and Megayacht News says he managed the custom yachts division during the years when the yard's largest models grew from 92 to 130 feet.

He left Hatteras in 1991 and opened his own office in New Bern, first as Paragon Design, then Setzer Design Group and finally Setzer Yacht Architects. By the studio's own account he intended to do industrial design work, and within 30 days Broward Yachts called with an 88 foot sportfisherman. Yachting magazine, profiling him in 2017, lists degrees in architecture and naval architecture plus industrial design study, a surfboard label, a centre console company he built and sold and a line of sea kayaks. That spread shows in the portfolio.

An American studio for American yards

The yard list tells the story. Boat International's directory credits the studio with yachts from Trinity in Louisiana, Christensen in Vancouver, Washington, Delta Marine in Seattle, Richmond Yachts and Sovereign in British Columbia, Northern Marine in Anacortes, Lyman-Morse in Maine and Intermarine in Savannah, plus McMullen and Wing in New Zealand and Kingship and Tricon Marine in Asia. Most of these boats sit between 30 and 49 metres. Very few are Mediterranean show boats.

What links them is range and use. Many were built for the Caribbean and Pacific charter trade or for owners who intended to cross oceans, and the studio kept a satellite studio in Antigua, close to the charter fleet it designed for. Its stated rule for naval architecture was that every boat must be ready for heavy weather. For an American owner the practical advantage was a designer who knew the domestic yards, their costs and their habits, and who worked in feet, US gallons and the Fort Lauderdale show calendar rather than translating from Europe.

Marama logged 14,876 miles from Alaska to Sydney in eighteen months, which is the best argument any Setzer drawing ever made.

Relentless: the first of her kind out of China

She was the first yacht Kingship completed, according to CharterWorld, and directory listings describe her as the only Kingship Expedition 110 built. Setzer drew the exterior and Kingship did the interior, while one fleet listing credits Vripack and Sea Quest with the naval architecture, which we could not confirm from a second source. She is 263 GT on a 7.6 metre beam, with a steel hull, aluminium superstructure and twin 550 hp Caterpillar 3406E engines for about 12 knots flat out and 9 to 10 knots cruising. Five cabins take ten guests with seven crew.

She proved the concept with a three year world tour, and broker John DeCaro records her captain bringing her across the Atlantic from Europe. Published range figures disagree: CharterWorld gave 3,000 nautical miles when she sold in 2013 and the broker 4,000, while YachtCharterFleet lists 4,331 at 9 knots on 38,400 litres. A buyer should ask for a measured fuel log. The same undated broker report asked USD 6.278 million, a useful reference for what a proven 110 foot explorer of this age is offered at. She was refitted in 2020, with the main machinery overhauled.

Marama and the long way to Sydney

Delta Marine built her in composite to a Setzer exterior, with the interior developed by Ward Setzer and Rothschild Design together with the owners and the naval architecture done by the yard. She carries about 22,600 US gallons of fuel, roughly 85,000 litres, runs Caterpillar 3412 engines with zero-speed stabilisers and launches her tenders from overhead gantry cranes. CharterWorld reports she shared the 2009 World Superyacht Award for displacement motor yachts below 500 GT.

The Voyager's Award is given to an owner who has made extensive use of a yacht for long distance voyaging. Boat International records 14,876 miles in eighteen months from Alaska down the US west coast to the Marquesas, the Tuamotus, the Society Islands, Tonga, Fiji and New Caledonia before Sydney. Her name means lady in Fijian and was given by a villager on Wakaya. For anyone judging whether a Setzer expedition design works in practice, that voyage is the best evidence there is.

NISI 2400: small, fast and certified

Tricon Marine built her in Asia to a design Boat International credits to Ward Setzer and the yard's own team, with Setzer's office doing the naval architecture. She was launched on 1 December 2010 and shown at Miami in February 2011. The package was unusual at 78 feet: a wave-piercing hull, pod propulsion, stabilisers and SkyHook station keeping, two Caterpillar C18 engines of 1,000 hp each for a claimed 30 knots plus four ensuite cabins with a full-beam master amidships.

In October 2011 she won Best Power Yacht 24 to 40 metres at the International Superyacht Society awards in Fort Lauderdale, after taking Best Design at the World Yachts Trophy in Cannes. She was also an Asia Boating Awards finalist. A second hull, stretched to 24.38 metres with a bigger sundeck and aft deck spa, was ordered in 2011. In 2014 Diane M. Byrne of Megayacht News noted her open main deck plan was ahead of the market. We could not confirm how many hulls were built in total.

The charter fleet behind the name

Koi was launched in New Zealand in 2001 by McMullen and Wing as Surprise, a 35 metre, 270 GT steel expedition yacht designed for South Pacific charter with forward tender stowage and a range quoted at 4,000 nautical miles. She changed hands in 2009 and one fleet listing puts her full 2014 refit at around EUR 1.3 million. At Sovereign Yachts the studio styled the 31 metre Waterford in 2001 and Aspen Alternative, a 36.6 metre GRP yacht of 2002 good for 23 knots with an interior by Patrick Knowles.

The largest cluster is at Richmond Yachts, where Setzer did both exterior and naval architecture on Lucy (2008) and Catching Moments (2013), with interiors by Pavlik Design Team, and also drew Excellence (2010). Trinity built Grandeur, Themis and the 48.8 metre No Bad Ideas to Setzer lines in the late 1990s. Several still charter: King of Fun, a Northern Marine, from USD 120,000 a week on both CharterWorld and YachtCharterFleet. Miss Stephanie, a Richmond, is listed from USD 135,000.

What a Setzer design costs

Those superyacht figures come from the SuperYachtReview cost guide, updated March 2026, which also puts a new 30 to 40 metre yacht at EUR 8 to 25 million. At the smaller end, Kasten Marine publishes a fixed commission of around 10 to 12 per cent of the as-built cost for a complete design, excluding NC cutting files. A studio that does exterior and naval architecture, as Setzer did at Richmond, can be expected to sit toward the upper end of the superyacht band. One that only styles a yard's platform can be expected to sit toward the bottom.

The split on Setzer's own boats shows where extra money goes. On Relentless the interior was the yard's; on Aspen Alternative the naval architecture was Sovereign's; on Marama the interior was shared with Rothschild Design; on the Richmond boats Pavlik Design Team did the interiors. Each of those is a separate appointment and fee. Build supervision and classification are never part of a design fee and should be budgeted separately.

The studio today

In March 2017 Setzer partnered with HMY Yacht Sales in Florida to form a superyacht division for boats of 100 feet and over, offering the Vestal line with Admiral and the Trident series with Outer Reef. Yachting magazine put Setzer-designed brokerage inventory at around USD 400 million at the time. In January 2019 Hatteras named him chief product officer, reported by Trade Only Today, Megayacht News and Yachting. Hatteras chief executive Kelly Grindle cited his range from centre consoles to megayachts.

None of those reports said what would happen to the studio, and we found no later project announcements under the Setzer name. On 27 September 2026 setzerdesign.com returned a hosting suspension page. That does not mean the people or the archive are gone, but an owner should confirm with Ward Setzer directly who would draw, engineer and warrant a new design, and whether an in-house role at a builder limits work for other yards.

Commissioning a Setzer design: what to check

Start with the credits. On some Setzer yachts the studio did exterior and naval architecture; on others it styled a hull the yard engineered. Ask for the stability book, the class approval history and the measured sea trial of a comparable delivered boat, not the design brochure. The Relentless range figures are a good warning: three published numbers, none tied to a dated trial. Ask the studio to name the yard team it has worked with, since most of its portfolio came from a dozen North American and Asian builders.

Then read the contracts. The design agreement and the build contract are separate documents with separate remedies, and the owner's own build supervisor should sit between them. Check who owns the drawings if the studio stops trading, which matters more here than it would with a large firm. Finally ask for charter and brokerage history on sister ships: a designer whose boats resell and keep chartering, as King of Fun and Excellence have, is telling you something useful.

Strengths and trade-offs

On the strong side, the delivered record is real and specific. Marama crossed the Pacific, Relentless completed a world tour, Koi, drawn for South Pacific charter, has been kept in service and refitted since 2001 and the NISI 2400 broke a certification barrier at 78 feet. The studio worked comfortably with North American and Asian yards and drew for the crew as much as for the owner. Ward Setzer told Yachting in 2016 that he learned tender handling by watching charter yachts come into Antigua.

On the weak side, the studio's output claims moved from 70 vessels to hundreds to 800 deliveries without a published list to match, and its fleet on Boat International's profile page runs to about 34 yachts. Its international profile never matched the Dutch and Italian majors. Its largest credited delivery is under 49 metres although it has quoted designs up to 240 feet. In 2026 its website is dark. None of that undoes the boats, but it changes the due diligence.

Pour qui: North American owners who want a proven 30 to 49 metre long range or charter yacht built at a domestic or Asian yard, and who will confirm the studio's current capacity before signing.